Newcastle United – PSV

The English club will prove to its opponent that it has the advantage.

Newcastle United approach the restart of the Champions League group stage in fairly good shape. This season the Magpies have not shone in any of the four competitions they are taking part in, but they are not short of effort. Eddie Howe's players recently reached the FA Cup Round of 16 after a penalty shootout. In addition, they are the current semi-finalists of the English League Cup, competing as last year's winners. Newcastle have nothing to lose in the club's most important competitions: the Champions League and the Premier League. In the elite European tournament, the Magpies sit twelfth in a big English pack that includes Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. The key factor for Harvey Barnes and the squad is that ten points would be enough to finish in the top 24, but they still have a good chance of finishing in the top eight. To do that, in the final rounds of the group stage they need to beat PSV at home and PSG in Paris. The Dutch side seems a more suitable opponent for such aims than the Parisians. They will fly to England with good memories and a good mood. In this season's Champions League on English soil PSV have already visited, routing Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield. It should be noted that the Merseyside club is currently more prone to defeats than Newcastle, and other results in the Champions League confirm PSV's own instability. The fact that the Eindhoven club has left no stone unturned in the Eredivisie finds only a weak echo in the Champions League. Besides the aforementioned win over Liverpool, Peter Bosz's side can be proud of a demolition of Napoli, which largely caused its own problems in Eindhoven. Otherwise, it's worth recalling PSV's home defeat by Union Saint-Gilloise and how the Dutch club barely got out of Piraeus and Leverkusen, in both cases coming back shortly before the final whistles. Newcastle at home in this season's Champions League beat Benfica and Athletic Bilbao 3-0 and 2-0 respectively, losing only to Barcelona. PSV hasn't yet reached the Catalans, so we should back the confident win for the more prosperous home side.